Tennis hotshots: Jack Draper, Mirra Andreeva blazing their way to the top
The new Indian Wells champions show no signs of slowing down as they seek more trophies
IN THE tennis world today, the two names on everyone’s lips are none other than Jack Draper and Mirra Andreeva. The pair stunned the sport by winning at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells last weekend, leaving behind many fallen established players along the way.
Andreeva, who turns 18 only next month, outfoxed Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka – the world’s two best players – in consecutive three-set matches to lift the trophy.
The 23-year-old Draper was just as impressive in the Southern California desert as he outplayed Carlos Alcaraz and Taylor Fritz to clinch his first Masters 1000 title.
‘The next Andy Murray’
Not long after his Indian Wells breakthrough, the British media waxed lyrical about Draper’s success, with some even labelling him as “the next Andy Murray”.
Draper, who is already the top-ranked player in Britain and seventh in the world, would much prefer to be seen as “the first Jack Draper”. He produced one mesmerising performance after another at Indian Wells, beating four top-15 opponents in a row, including a three-set semi-final win over the defending champion Alcaraz.
In the final on Sunday (Mar 16), Draper continued his rapid ascendancy to global superstardom with a sublime straight-sets victory over Denmark’s Holger Rune.
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This was his third and biggest title on the ATP Tour, coming six months after he reached the semi-finals of last year’s US Open.
The London-born left-hander turned professional in 2018, but his career has been plagued by numerous injuries that have prevented him from playing at his best. When he made his ATP Tour main draw debut in singles at the 2021 Miami Open, he was forced to retire in the first round after collapsing on court due to heat exhaustion.
If this season is any indication, Draper appears to have put those injury woes behind him for good, and he’s served notice that he wants to be a top contender on the tour for the long haul.
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“I’m definitely believing more and more that I can compete consistently against top players in the world,” he said in a press conference at Indian Wells, noting that he needs to raise his game at the Majors where it is best-of-five sets encounters instead of best-of-three.
“It’s a little bit of a change, but I feel like I belong completely. There’s a lot of things that I can still improve in my game, which is really exciting. I feel like I’ve still got a lot to work on and a lot to uncover with my tennis.”
Teenage sensation
Tennis fans have heard this story before: A 17-year-old from Russia named Maria Sharapova shocks the world by winning a major tournament, Wimbledon, in 2004.
Fast forward 21 years later, Andreeva – also 17 and from Russia – pulls off a huge upset in Indian Wells to become the event’s youngest champion in over a quarter of a century, and the youngest player to beat a reigning World No 1 (Sabalenka) in a singles final since 2005.
Of course, a WTA 1000 title is not at the same level as a Grand Slam, but one gets the sense that Andreeva is probably not too far away from emulating Sharapova’s success at the sport’s highest level.
This was Andreeva’s second WTA 1000 title this season after the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in February. To put her Indian Wells feat in greater perspective, only two other players under the age of 18 have defeated the top two in a single WTA event: Serena Williams and Steffi Graf.
A former junior World No 1, Andreeva is now ranked sixth in the world and has been making waves on the women’s tour in the last year or so. She’s on a remarkable 12-match winning streak and showing no signs of slowing down.
Last year, she played her best tennis in Paris – she reached the semi-finals of the French Open in June and a couple of months later she returned to the French capital to take the silver medal in women’s doubles at the Summer Olympics.
Not too long ago, as a rookie on the tour, she simply aspired to win more tournaments and to be among the best players in the world. Now, she admits that she can’t quite believe that she’s already sixth in the rankings and poised to move even higher.
“Of course, I’m super proud of myself for that, but I try to just focus on the matches that I have to play and on the tournaments that I have to go to,” she said.
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